STARBUCKS SUSTAINABILITY by Sullivan Kidwell

sk44406 — 2024-04-25 14:09:19 UTC

Starbucks & The Economy

sk44406 — 2024-04-25 14:10:04 UTC

Starbucks drastically affects the economy. When Starbucks opens a store in a new place, it often causes a surge in economic growth. It can serve as a catalyst for development and attract other large businesses. This is because they see Starbucks there and realize it is a good place to set up more stores; they want to buy the property while it’s cheap and there isn’t much development, but will start growing. Starbucks also plans to set up 85 new stores in economically vulnerable areas to provide stable jobs for citizens. They believe it will have a positive effect on the area by having more money flow through its economy. Despite these benefits, Starbucks can still cause serious damage to local communities when moving in. It is known to displace small businesses and existing residents. Property value increases as well as rent of houses and apartments. The area rapidly becomes more urban and more expensive to live in. Clearly, Starbucks has powerful effects that can be good or bad on the economy of a city or region.

Starbucks & Employees

sk44406 — 2024-04-25 14:11:01 UTC

Everyone knows Starbucks. It’s a huge company with thousands of employees or “partners”. 78% of their workers say they are satisfied with the benefits and the work environment. Despite this, in South Korea, many baristas complained about low wages and poor conditions. This was caused by having 650 or more orders to complete and making no mistakes all while smiling and maintaining friendliness. Because of this Starbucks pledged to hire 1600 more workers and increase wages based on seniority and experience. The average wage of Starbucks workers is $13.45 an hour. Only 60% of employees say they are paid fairly. Not being paid enough has a strong effect on their mental health and makes them worried about having enough money to keep their family afloat.

Starbucks & The Economy

sk44406 — 2024-04-25 14:20:08 UTC

Starbucks provides many things for many people, but there is a large environmental cost to it all. Starbucks produces 4 billion cups a year, which is 8,000 cups every minute, which is over 130 cups a second! This causes over 1.6 million trees to be cut down annually by Starbucks alone! 1% of the drinks they sell are in reusable cups or mugs. Despite this, they donate 100 million dollars to disease resistant trees and the global farmer fund. They also release a lot of carbon emissions. Because of this, they opened “Greener” stores, which reduce carbon emissions by 30%.

Citations

sk44406 — 2024-04-25 14:21:49 UTC

"Starbucks and Our Plastic Pollution Problem." Clean Water Action, cleanwater.org/starbucks-and-our-plastic-pollution-problem#:~:text=Starbucks%20uses%20more%20than%208%2C000,Starbucks%20paper%20cups%20for%20recycling. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.

"Starbucks Happiness Score." Comparably, www.comparably.com/companies/starbucks/happiness. Accessed 3 Apr. 2024.

Bondarenko, Peter and Petruzzello, Melissa. "Starbucks". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Mar. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Starbucks. Accessed 20 March 2024.Alexander, Timothy. "Unlocking the Mystery of the Starbucks Effect." MyChesCo, 5 July 2023, www.mychesco.com/a/special-feature/starbucks-effect/. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.

Boroweic, Steven. "'Won't take it any more': South Korea's Starbucks baristas rebel." Aljazeera, 6 Jan. 2022, www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/1/6/wont-take-it-any-more-south-koreas-starbucks-baristas-rebel. Accessed 3 Apr. 2024.

Kelly, Alexandra. "Starbucks to support local economies in 'community store' program." Changing America, 18 Jan. 2020, thehill.com/changing-america/resilience/smart-cities/478603-starbucks-to-support-local-economies-in-community/. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.

Melchionne, Laurie. "Is Starbucks Sustainable?" Impakter, 17 Feb. 2023, impakter.com/is-starbucks-sustainable/. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.

What can be done

sk44406 — 2024-04-25 15:30:03 UTC

This is a big issue but you can help solve it. If you work at Starbucks, you can get in touch with the Starbucks Workers United and maybe even start a union. If you want to help environmentally, you can bring in your own reusable cup and/or mug and they will use that. You can also submit complaints to Starbucks.

Summary

sk44406 — 2024-04-25 15:57:31 UTC

Overall, Starbucks has a lot of good things about it, and some terrible things. Some things are also neutral. Starbucks has a relatively good employee review, but in some places, they have many struggles. Starbucks has pledged to help even though they have a bad reputation with keeping promises. They cause a lot of trees to be cut down and carbon emissions. They also donate hundreds of millions of dollars to farmers and trees. They drastically affect the economy of cities and areas around them in both negative and positive ways.